makai, or magician, swung an owl feather over them. At the close of the songs he foretold the number of the enemy that would be killed. Thus they fared forth, carrying a little roasted meal and a small but shapely basket bowl from which to eat it, provided with a little tobacco for the ceremonial smokes that wafted their individual prayers to the Sun god. A portion of each band was armed with bows and arrows; the former of the elastic mulberry wood from the same mountains in which the enemy found refuge, the latter of the straight-stemmed arrow bush, whose tufted tips waved in billowy masses on the Pimerían lowlands. When a comrade fell in battle his bow was broken and his arrow shafts were snapped and left upon the spot. Oftentimes the body of a man killed in battle was burned, though this method of disposal of the body was never employed at the villages. It may have been a survival from the time when the Pimas lived on the Colorado or it may have been recently adopted from the Maricopas, who habitually cremate their dead. On the homeward journey no fires were allowed for cooking or warmth, though with due precautions they might be built on the outward trail. Another portion of the war party was provided with circular shields of rawhide and short but heavy clubs of mesquite and ironwood. Their appeal to the God of War was expressed by the sun symbols that decorated the shields, and the latter were kept swiftly rotating upon the supple forearms of their bearers as the advance was made for hand-to-hand conflict. The frequent use of the figure, "like predatory animals or birds of prey," in the ceremonial speeches imbued all with the spirit of agility and fierceness that manifested itself in the leaps from side to side and the speed of their onward rush. Crouching low, springing quickly with whirling shield that concealed the body, in feather headdress and battle colors, they must have presented a terrifying spectacle.[1] Their courage can not be questioned, and in some conflicts, of which there is independent white testimony, they killed several hundred warriors. But these were rare occasions, and their raids usually terminated with the loss of a man or two and the destruction of an Apache camp, with perhaps a half dozen of the enemy killed and a child taken prisoner.
The head chief, Antonio Azul, thus described to the author the circumstances of his first campaign: With 30 friendly Apaches from the San Xavier settlement, 200 Papagos, and about 500 Pimas he went up the Gila a distance of about 50 miles and encountered the enemy in the rough country around Riverside. The Apaches tied the bushes together to prevent the mounted warriors from getting
- ↑ "In battle the Indians ant not quiet fora moment, but, with constantly bended knees, leap rapidly trom side to side, waving their shield and its long streamers, for the purpose of dazzling the eyes of their adversaries. Apaches are said to oil their joints before going to battle, in order to make them supple." Whipple, Ewbank, and Turner. Report upon the Indian Tribes, in Pacific Railroad Reports, III 30.
